Materials handling vehicles, such as counterbalance forklift trucks, reach trucks, turret trucks, etc., include an energy storage system (ESS), e.g., a battery or a fuel cell, for providing power to one or more functional systems of the vehicle. Exemplary functional systems include: a traction control system, which controls movement of the vehicle across a floor surface; a primary load handling assembly system, which is used to raise and lower a load via a moveable assembly of the vehicle; and an auxiliary load handling assembly system, which performs additional tasks such as tilt and sideshift of a load via a fork carriage assembly.
Traditionally, functional system(s) in materials handling vehicles experience lost performance as the ESS discharges its energy, due in part to a decline in ESS voltage as the ESS state-of-charge declines. In order to deliver a steady power output, which is intended to correspondingly yield generally constant functional system performance, the current drawn from the ESS is increased to accommodate for the reduction in ESS voltage as the ESS state-of-charge declines. If such increased current draws are allowed to continue unlimited, some components of the ESS, such as terminals, connectors, contactors, and fuses, may become stressed, and consequently require higher levels of maintenance and/or repair.